Such a coin collection box is to accommodate a sufficient number of coins in a limited space. Unless this coin collection box is to serve merely as an intermediate storage means for one or a few cashiering steps, it must lend itself to being designed with an overflow to remain operable even in the filled condition. And it also is to be suitable for returning coins, for example after actuating a correction key; in this case, the respectively last inserted coins are to be returned so that there is no possibility of fraudulently inserting coin-like items or lower-value coins and then having coins of the correct value issued by actuation of the correction key. Coin collectors of the type set forth in the prior art exhibit these properties, and they are furthermore simple in structure and mode of operation because they require no conveyor means, such as tappets, for example, for the collection and dispensing of coins. The coins simply drop into the compartments and out of them on account of their weight.
In a conventional coin collection box of this type, the ring of compartments is arranged upright, i.e. its axis is disposed horizontally. The first and second fixed ring walls are coaxial cylindrical ring walls, the first thereof exhibiting the insert opening at the top and the second one thereof exhibiting the outlet opening leading into a coin return channel at the top and, beside this channel, into a coin overflow channel. A coin dropping through the inlet opening into a compartment impinges on a practically horizontal wall surface portion of the second cylindrical ring wall (Swiss Pat. No. 600,453). The compartment ring of another coin collection box of this type is arranged in a prone position, i.e. with a vertical axis. The first and second fixed ring walls are coaxial, parallel circular ring walls, the upper one of these exhibiting the insert opening and the lower one of these containing the issuance opening leading into a coin return channel. A coin dropping through the insert opening into a compartment impinges on the horizontal surface of the second fixed circular ring wall (Swiss Pat. No. 635,950).
In these conventional coin collection boxes, a coin dropping through the inlet opening drops on a surface perpendicular to the dropping direction; the coin rebounds from this surface and thereby can pass temporarily back into the inlet opening, which depends on the material of the second, fixed ring wall, the weight and alloy of the coin, as well as the dimensions of the compartment as compared with the coin diameter, and also depends on the incidental contact between the coin and compartment walls. To prevent the rebounding coin from being located, during the subsequent rotation of the ring of compartments, partially in the inlet opening and partially in the compartment into which it has dropped, thus being jammed, and blocking the drive mechanism of the ring of compartments and thus the entire coin collection box, the ring of compartments could only be further rotated by one step after a time period had passed, since feeding of the coin, adequate for the coin to assume a rest position in the respective compartment even under adverse conditions. The risk of rebounding exists especially in case of clean coins which do not tend to adhere to the compartment walls of the compartment and therefore impinge on the second ring wall almost in free fall. In case of dirty coins, or coins wet from rain water or snow, for example, the risk of rebounding is indeed lesser since such coins tend to adhere to the compartment walls. However, also in this case the operation of the coin collection box could be disturbed, especially likewise blocked, for such a coin could adhere in a position where it projected into the inlet or into the outlet openings while the ring of compartments was rotating. A coin could also stick in the compartment. Once the compartment came to be located underneath the inlet opening, the subsequent coin would fall on the stuck coin, blocking the ring of compartments including its rotary drive. If a stuck coin, which should have dropped into the coin overflow channel, was detached too late, it would fall into the coin return channel and would be unduly returned; this fact would not be recorded by a coin counter customarily provided for control, especially accounting purposes so that the number of actually collected coins would not correspond to the counted number. Sticking of coins to the compartments is essentially due to the following causes: during the stepwise rotation of the ring of compartments, the coins, necessarily present with a clearance in the compartments, are jiggled each time, i.e. they are accelerated and decelerated. During such process, the coins could assume positions wherein they are in flat contact with a compartment wall. With an upright ring of compartments, this was even unavoidable because the compartment walls, during rotation of the ring about the horizontal axis, assume horizontal and slightly inclined positions. A coin moist, for example, due to rain or snow, or a dirty coin, which is separated merely by a thin film of water or dirt from a planar, especially almost horizontal surface tends to adhere to such surface, as experience has shown. This leads to the aforementioned disturbances. Once the ring of compartments and its rotary drive mechanism are blocked thereby, or by a rebounded coin, the automatic cashier or coin changer is no longer usable until the trouble has been eliminated by personnel trained in servicing the device. Coin collection boxes of the type discussed hereinabove tend toward such disturbances in particular because the coins are not positively conveyed by conveying means, for example tappets (such as, for instance, in the coin collection box with compartment ring according to Swiss Pat. No. 444,548) but rather drop, in a much simpler way, only on account of their weight into the compartments and out of them. Accordingly, the advantage of the elimination of such conveying means was confronted by the disadvantage of being prone to trouble.